whatyoulikethat

I need help, It has just over 125,000 miles on it and ever since I bought it less then a year ago its something every month. First, my speedometer/mile gauge went out cruising on the highway. I have dealt with it because I have judged speed pretty well, have never gotten a ticket. Since then, the starter went out, got it replaced. Had a "power draw" according to a place I took it to. They identified the battery as bad so I replaced it and it worked fine. About 1 month later, I take it back in to diagnose an oil leak, and they suggest I check for power draw again. Ironically, in the last week the vehicle has been a little harder to start. Today on my way home, I started the 4runner and noticed my battery light was on. the volts were beginning to drop and my tachometer needle was bouncing, but the truck wasnt really acting any different. Eventually the windows would barely roll up, the rear ABS light came on, all lights in and out were dim and the tach dropped to 0. As soon as i get into my neighborhood there was no throttle response and I couldn't even pull it into the drive way. I put it in 1st and was able to inch onto my driveway. Please help with any place I could start looking, this forum has saved me so much money previously.

whatyoulikethat

Forgot to mention, it's 2wd auto trans.

scyotapu

alternator sounds bad. pull the alternator out, remove the brushes from the rear and take a look at them. If you have plenty of brush left, rough up the brushes and the copper shaft with a very very fine sandpaper and that should get you more life out of it. OR you can just buy new brushes to put in. they run around 20$ a set.

TNRabbit

To diagnose a power draw, disconnect the negative battery terminal & run a multi tester (set on low DC power) between battery & ground terminal with EVERYTHING OFF. You'll need to disconnect the clock & radio (fuse) to accomplish this. If it shows anything at all, you have a power draw. Now the fun begins with finding it....

whatyoulikethat

I appreciate the prompt reply, I got the alternator tested and it turns out it was bad. I plan on getting the draw checked too.
Thanks!